Strafexpedition (World War I)

Südtirol Offensive; Battle of Asiago
	Part of the Italian Front; (First World War)
	; The remaining alpine vegetation after the attack on Asiago.
Date	15 May – 10 June 1916
Location	Asiago plateau, Veneto, Italy
Result	Italian defensive victory Austro-Hungarian retreat; Austro-Hungarian failure on capturing the Asiago plateau;
Belligerents
Kingdom of Italy	Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Luigi Cadorna; Roberto Brusati; Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi; Pietro Frugoni	Conrad von Hötzendorf; Archduke Eugen of Austria; Viktor Dankl von Krasnik; Hermann Kövess
Units involved
1st Army ; 5th Army	11th Army ; 3rd Army
Strength
172 battalions; 850 guns	300 battalions; 2,000 guns
Casualties and losses
15,453 Killed; 76,642 Wounded; 55,635 Missing or Captured	10,203 Killed; 45,651 Wounded; 26,961 Missing or Captured

The Südtirol Offensive, also known as the Battle of Asiago or Battle of the Plateaux (in Italian: Battaglia degli Altipiani), nicknamed Strafexpedition ("Punitive expedition")^[3] by the Austro-Hungarian forces, was a major offensive launched by the Austro-Hungarians on the territory of Vicentine Alps in the Italian Front on 15 May 1916, during World War I. It was an "unexpected" attack that took place near Asiago in the province of Vicenza (now in northeast Italy, then on the Italian side of the border between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary) after the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo (March 1916).

Commemorating this battle and the soldiers killed in World War I is the Asiago War Memorial.^[4]

^ Data for the period 15 May - 31 July 1916, from the diary of the First Army, in: Gianni Pieropan, 1916. Le montagne scottano, Tamari editori, Bologna, 1968, p. 214.
^ Numbers for the period 15 May - 31 July 1916, from Austrian official reports, in: Gianni Pieropan, 1916. Le montagne scottano, Tamari editori, Bologna, 1968, p. 214.
^ Thompson, Mark (2008). The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919. London: Faber and Faber, p. 163.
^ "Sacrario militare di Asiago-Leiten e museo del Sacrario" (in Italian). Itinerari della Grande Guerra. Retrieved 24 April 2013.

[1] Data for the period 15 May - 31 July 1916, from the diary of the First Army, in: Gianni Pieropan, 1916. Le montagne scottano, Tamari editori, Bologna, 1968, p. 214.

[2] Numbers for the period 15 May - 31 July 1916, from Austrian official reports, in: Gianni Pieropan, 1916. Le montagne scottano, Tamari editori, Bologna, 1968, p. 214.

[3] Thompson, Mark (2008). The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919. London: Faber and Faber, p. 163.

[4] "Sacrario militare di Asiago-Leiten e museo del Sacrario" (in Italian). Itinerari della Grande Guerra. Retrieved 24 April 2013.

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